Tuesday, 18 August 2015

5 Photography Tips To Get Great Photos

Shoot With Three Elements In Mind

When taking a picture, having three elements in a shot is much better than one or two. For example in a still life, having three colours or three objects makes for much more interesting shots than two colours or two objects.

Also this rule can be applied to the number of shots you take. Shooting three shots in a continuous burst is better than taking one as you are likely to find the perfect picture in the three you have took, rather than the one you take normally. Also if you find that perfect picture, you don't have to take it again. Furthermore, it is better as when you click the shutter button, you can wiggle the camera from the force of you clicking the button so the picture can come out not as sharp as it should be. But with three shots, that shake will be gone on the second or third shot so you will probably have sharper pictures than the first.

Focusing Your Camera

For normal cameras or lower tech cameras, you can focus a picture by holding the shutter button halfway down before you take a shot. This means that every picture you take should be sharp. So before clicking down completely, hold it halfway down till it has focused then fully press it to take a shot.

For higher tech cameras, on the back of the camera might be an AF-ON button which simply means auto focus. The button can also look different and be labeled differently as to that shown in the picture. This technique is sometimes referred to back button focusing as the button is on the back of the camera. This button acts the same as pressing the shutter button halfway down, but with this button it locks in the focus that you set. This means that you can press the shutter button all the way down, without stopping halfway, which enables you to take shots faster and not have to worry about the camera not taking that award winning shot as the camera is out of focus. Besides, it doesn't look good to fiddle with your camera in front of clients to try and take a picture, they expect you to be professional and that is how you will look as you won't need to mess around.

Focus Stacking

This is a second tip with focusing to make your images look even more pro. Most importantly, you need a tripod to set your camera on and for the subject of your picture to be still/motionless. This technique will make your whole image look sharp as in the sample above. What you do is take the first picture with the closest part of the subject in focus. Next you take another shot moving the focus a little further into the subject. You keep repeating this process, until the furthest part of the subject has been focused in on and shot.

Now for the clever bit, you combine all of these images into one single image using an image editing software. It is very time consuming to do it that way, but Photoshop has a handy function for this. Likewise Combine ZP does, which is free!

Use a Flashgun

Using an off camera flashgun can make some shots look significantly better. It doesn't matter if it is the middle of the day, that extra little bit of light can mean the difference between a good shot and a great shot. Also you could create a shadow effect in your picture if you so desire during the day and the image calls for it. But I'm not an expert on how to use a flashgun, so do a bit of googling to see how you can use it to your advantage.

Edit Your Photos!

Don't be afraid to use image editing software to edit your photos. If a photo isn't up to quality, then either don't show it or keep editing it. A simple few minutes in an image editing software can make so much difference to a photo.